I’m still upset about Gary Primich passing away. I have to talk about it. Last night I called a dozen people, even some that I didn’t know. I started remembering the guy and some of the conversations that we had.

These are a couple of tall tales about Gary Primich from back around 1993 or 94 at Blues Week in Elkins, WV.

When Gary was first starting out, he had a chance to play with Louis and Dave Myers. The Myers brothers were in the band that had been in Little Walter’s band after Walter had left Muddy. This was a big deal for Gary. He got there and on the first song, one of the brothers nodded to him to take a solo which he did. Gary felt pretty good about it and as the night went on he got a few more solos, but as the evening progressed, they stopped giving him solos. When the night was over, Gary, still in the glow of playing with Little Walter’s band spoke to the brothers and asked them what they thought of his playing. They told Gary that he was the worst Harp player that they had ever heard and that they’d never play with Gary again.

Gary said he didn’t play harp for almost a year after that. He was crushed. Luckily he did take up harp again and now is known as one of the greatest harp players that ever lived.

Here’s another:

Gary got the harp bug in college. He had some Little Walter records and a turntable and would play each song hundreds of times trying to get down every lick. He said that “Off the Wall” was the quintessential harp song. It has every lick that you’ll ever need to play harp and Gary tried to memorize every nuance. Eventually the other people in the dorm threatened to break all of his records if he didn’t stop playing them at all hours of the day and night. This didn’t discourage him.

He came back early to the dorm during Christmas break. He figured that the dorm would be empty. When he turned on the phonograph and put the needle on the opening notes of “Off the Wall”, a shout went up from at least three rooms on his floor. “Oh, No!” echoed from all three at exactly the same moment.

One more:

Gary told me one night that at another teaching gig, he got in trouble singing a song that a friend of his wrote about Lee Harvey Oswald. Later that week, we all got pretty drunk at one of the jams and I said, “Sing the Oswald song, Gary.”
Gary smiled at me. He was ripped. He started in on the very politically incorrect, but hilarious song, “Lee Harvey was a Friend of Mine”. I don’t think that he was invited back to Elkins again for several years because of that song.

I always figured that I’d see Gary again, and now I never will. I’ll miss that jerk. He was a great guy.

Gary Primich passed away today. He was not only a great harp player, but he was my friend. He was the smartest harp player that I ever met and he had a great gift for teaching. He could step into your position and see what you needed to do to improve. I spent two different weeks with him in Elkins, West Virginia, learning blues harp. After dinner we’d hang out in on the front steps of the dorm, drinking beer, playing harp and just chewing the fat into the wee hours of the morning.

He was an intense and interesting player. I’ve worn out several of his CDs and I bought a second copy of his instructional tape because the first one was borrowed and never given back.

I felt like Gary was another one of my brothers. I wanted to go back and hang with him one more time at Elkins, and for some reason never did.

Gary, you will be missed!

Musician Gary Primich dies | Austin Music Source

There are generally two types of harmonica players; ones who have amazing technique and those who can play with a low-down soulful intensity. Gary Primich was both. The blues great died Sunday in Austin, his ex-wife Tina Rosenzwieg confirmed Monday. He was 49. The Travis County medical examiner’s office would not release information pending the notification of the next of kin.

Alex Badalic has a nice article on his blog about the Brazilian harp player Flávio Guimarães. There’s a youtube vid there that is worth watching.

Flávio Guimarães is a harmonica player, singer and Brazilian Blues pioneer. During a career that has spanned two decades, he has released 15 CDs, five solo albums and ten as part of Brazil’s premier Blues-Rock band ‘Blues Etílicos’.

Somebody over at Harp-L posted this link to an elephant blowing harp.

The joke was that the elephant asked a naked man, “How to you trunk block with that thing?”

ViewImages.com

Chris Brown just emailed me about his up and coming Blues Benefit. Last year it was a real fantastic time. It costs $25, but it goes to a good cause. There’s a some cheesy video from Brown’s Blues 2006

Chris wrote:

It looks like I’m gonna try another benefit! This year’s event will be held at the beautiful Palaia Winery, Sunday Sept.30 from 2-7pm. they have a huge stage nestled right amongst the grapes in front of the same creek and mountain from last year’s benefit. hopefully we’ll have no rain at this time of year! Palaia Vineyard is located six miles north of the Woodbury commons outlet on rte 32 in highland mills n.y. Food will be available from Mamma Theresa, great Italian!!!

Tickets are again only $25, children and dog’s free.

Music this year will range from bluegrass to R&B to straight up blues. Carlos Colina, Pat Jones and Gil Cruz will be making a return, as will a slew of special guests under the moniker ” Willie Blood’s Bucket of Blues” I hope that you can make it. The setting is incredible with professional lights, sound and stage!

I might be talked into bring some amps and mics. Email if you are coming and we’ll see what we can set up for tasting.

Ron Holmes, the creator of the Holmes Commander and other feats of engineering, has a page with a load of free downloads. There’s Soldering 101, Harmonica Player’s Guide to Getting Heard and Harp Player’s Questions About their Gear. It’s all interesting stuff and the price is right. While you’re there check out the Homes Commander and the other interesting stuff on his pages.

I hesitated telling you about this link. The pages do not work in Firefox, so Ron’s pages are useless to nearly 25% of the surfers who land on the page. If you have Firefox open the link in IE. The links bring you to LuLu.com and require an account even if you the files are free. The LuLu interface is annoying and difficult, but I was able to do it with a little head scratching.

The Harp Player’s Questions About their Gear pdf has some interesting articles. It is only about 30 pages and is not a comprehensive discussion, rather a series of questions and answers. Some don’t really affect me, some do. I picked up a few good ideas from the booklet.

Free Harp Stuff